Fans lined up outside Amoeba Hollywood for The Drums on October 24, 2014

We are looking back at the amazing history we have seen over the last 19 years in Los Angeles. So much has happened since we opened at 6400 Sunset Blvd in 2001 that it's impossible to do it justice in one piece! View Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four of our photo history series celebrating and commemorating our rich history.

Part Five starts on January 15, 2014 with a signing event to celebrate Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings' sixth album Give The People What They Want. Sharon had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the previous year and promotion for the album paused until she was heathy enough to tour again. We were incredibly happy to welcome her back to Amoeba for a fan meet-and-greet and to film a What's In My Bag? episode with the band. Sadly, this was our last visit with Sharon and she lost her battle with cancer just two years later in November 2016.

With the announcement that Amoeba Hollywood will not reopen on Sunset Blvd and will instead focus on hopefully reopening in the fall at our new location at 6200 Hollywood Blvd, we wanted to look back at the amazing history we've seen over the last 19 years. Although we are not able to give the building the sendoff it deserves, it's our hope that you'll find some joy, some memories, and some solace in these images.

So much as happened at Amoeba since we opened at 6400 Sunset Blvd that it's impossible to do it justice in one piece, so we we created this photo history series to celebrate and commemorate our rich history. In Part One, we started with the beginning -- Opening Day November 17, 2001 -- and went through one of the most memorable in-store events we've ever had: Paul McCartney's epic performance in June 2007.

Part Two begins with the second half of 2007 and continues through 2009. April 2008 saw the introduction of two things that have since become staples for Amoeba: Record Store Day and our Webby Award-winning What's In My Bag? series.

If you're at all like me (and I have a strong suspicion that you, dear record collector, might be), then you enjoy a deep dive into the dark corners of music history AND you also love a good Novelty album. You grew up cherishing your Dr. Demento collections and World Wrestling Federation LP, but you also burned with questions about that Leonard Nimoy album your parents had next to the hi-fi in the living room. Well, there's a place for us and, of course, it's on the internet in the form of a podcast called Bizarre Albums. Hosted by drummer Tony Thaxton of Motion City Soundtrack, Bizarre Albums serves as a sort of VH1's Behind the Music for the novelties, oddities, and the just plain strange in the wide world of weird records. Since nothing could be farther up Amoeba's alley than celebrating the unexpected vinyl find, we tracked down Tony and asked him about his show and his own record collection.

Our "What's In My Bag?" adventure began nine years ago when "Weird Al" Yankovic came shopping at Amoeba Hollywood and caused a flurry of excitement among our entire staff. He graciously agreed to talk with us on camera (in the elevator room!) on his way out of the store. We didn't quite know what we were doing with the show at that point - or even that it would be a show. But even in that scrappy pilot there was still a magic moment at the end when a member of Brian Wilson's band stopped Al to compliment him on "Pancreas" (his Beach Boys "God Only Knows" parody). Al was clearly touched and we felt lucky to be witness that exchange. Thus, "What's In My Bag?" was born.

By 2009, the series had grown into a weekly feature and we were evolving stylistically. The series really found its audience and we had our first runaway hit in June 2010 with Die Antwoord's episode. They were visiting Los Angeles for the first time and Ninja's deer-in-the-headlights reaction to Amoeba was something everyone could relate to. That episode remains our highest viewed video to this day.

In 2013, we were honored to win a Webby Award and just last year we hit another milestone when we crossed 100,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel. "What's In My Bag?" has become our most popular feature and we are fortunate to be able to talk with musicians from all genres and eras, as well as filmmakers, actors, writers, fine artists, athletes, comedians, and more. Our viewers regularly make suggestions about who we should feature in upcoming episodes and they give us feedback about what they like and what they don't. It's amazing to watch our subscribers comment and compare episodes and provide insight into the series. They love it as much as we do!